dfather also went to America, where his skill helped build
the first blast furnace in Maryland. The furnace fires have not ceased
burning here, and Russia is crying for our steel to patch her broken
railways. Her own hills are full of iron and her hands are as strong as
ours. Let them expect no gift from life.

Grandfather told my father that America offered a rich future for him
and his boys. "The metal is there," he said, "as it is in Russia. Russia
may never develop, but America will. A nation's future lies not in its
resources. The American mind is right. Go to America."

And because my father believed that a good people will bring forth good
fruit, he left his ancient home in Wales and crossed the sea to cast his
lot among strangers.

I started to school in Wales when I was four years old. By the time I
was six I thought I knew more than my teachers. This shows about how
bright I was. The teachers had forbidden me to throw paper wads,
or spitballs. I thought I could go through the motion of throwing a
spitball without letting it go. But it slipped and I threw the wad right
in the teacher's eye. I told him it was an accident, that I had merely
tried to play smart and had overreached myself.

"Being smart is a worse fault," he said, "than throwing spitballs.
I forgive you for throwing the spitball, but I shall whip the smart
Aleckness out of you."

He gave me a good strapping, and I went home in rebellion. I told my
father. I wanted him to whip the teacher. Father said:

"I know the teacher is a good man. I have known him for years, and he is
honest, he is just, he is kind. If he whipped you, you deserved it. You
can not see it that way, so I am going to whip you myself."

He gave me a good licking, and, strange to say, it convinced me that he
and the teacher were right. They say that the "hand educates the mind,"
and I can here testify that father's hand set my mental processes
straight. From that day I never have been lawless in school or out. The
shame of my father's disapproval jolted me so that I decided ever after
to try to merit his approval.

To-day there is a theory that the child ought never to be restrained.
Solomon said: "Spare the rod and spoil the child." We have no corporal
punishment at Mooseheart, but we have discipline. A child must be
restrained. Whenever a crop of unrestrained youngsters takes the reins I
fear they will make this country one of their much talked of Utopias. It
was an unre